Best way to play the Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy?

Deleted member 11008 · Jan 1, 2020

For no reason I was thinking in this series and I get a bit nostalgic even if I never finish them. So Era, should I get the games on PS3, or the PC ports are good? My PC is not that buffy but they are old games, so I should be able to run it, and beside they are cheap at Steam. But if the ports are not very good I could get them on PS3, but they are quite expensive.

sredgrin · Jan 1, 2020

The PC versions are fine, but are from a generation when controller support was not near the universal standard it is today, so you might have to work out some kinks if you want to play on controller (and IIRC, they have generic prompts)

I'd just buy the first game, see if you can manage them, and refund them if you can't.

Windu · Jan 1, 2020

They are backward compatible on xbox one if you have that. Higher resolutions, SoT is 4:3 though, not sure about the others.

But yeah the best versions will be on PC. Assuming they work well on modern hardware.

Edit: wait actually looking on the store, just sands of time is available from that trilogy. No warrior within or two thrones. Probably couldn't get the license renewed for that god smack song. Looks like the later games are on there though.

Archduke Kong · Jan 1, 2020

I'm wondering about the PS3 version too. I COULD be a good collector and just buy the Gamecube versions but.... I mean if the PS3 version is fine, it'll take up less shelf space I guess.

deftones r cool · Jan 1, 2020

I was actually just playing Sands of Time on my original Xbox the other day. Still handles pretty damn fluidly

Hero of Legend · Jan 1, 2020

I dunno, but from what I remember reading about the HD collection, is that if you pick that, then you're gonna have a bad time.

Deleted member 11008 · Jan 1, 2020

Windu said:
Edit: wait actually looking on the store, just sands of time is available from that trilogy. No warrior within or two thrones. Probably couldn't get the license renewed for that god smack song. Looks like the later games are on there though.

That would be such a lame reason to hold the games lol I don't have a Xbox One anyway (but I'm considering get the next Xbox) Ah, I guess I will try Sands of Time on PC. Thanks for the controller stuff sredgrin, I will take on mind.

G_Shumi · Jan 1, 2020

Avoid the PS3 collection. Sands of Time has a weird sound issue where everything echoes regardless of where you are. Your footsteps echo, the voice actors echo, the sound effects echo, the music echoes. It's really annoying.

Xbox One has the Original Xbox version compatible with it and it will be compatible with the next generation of Xbox consoles as well.

I'm sure the PC version is fine too. I haven't played it on there though.

John Harker · Jan 2, 2020

Wait not that long for the remake

FlintSpace · Jan 2, 2020

John Harker said:
Wait for the remake

Yup, not a matter of If, just a matter of when.

Deleted member 71 · Jan 2, 2020

PC ports are your best bet for the whole trilogy. Gamepad support is hit and miss (it's directinput) but I somehow played the entire trilogy with mouse and keyboard and lived to tell the tale.

The PS3 ports are bad, avoid them.

StrappingYoungLance · Jan 2, 2020

The PS3 Trilogy release is godawful, so avoid that.

Quacktion · Jan 2, 2020

Go with PC. If you play the PS3 collection, then... youre gonna have a bad time ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Dazraell · Jan 2, 2020

I would recommend to play it on PC. GOG has an entire trilogy, compatible with Windows 10 and DRM-free. If you hurry, they're on sale for few more hours.

Rikimaru · Jan 2, 2020

There is a patcher for custom resolution on PC.

PyroPaperPlanes · Jan 2, 2020

Avoid the PS3 collection like the plague. As mentioned above, the sound is broken to the point that even the most casual of players will notice and be distracted.

If you have an Xbox One, the games are backwards compatible and run incredibly well. It should also be backwards compatible with the upcoming Xbox if you plan on picking that up.

Mentalist · Jan 2, 2020

PC version is fine, until you get to The Two Thrones. Then there's a few bugs that might stop your progress or require workarounds.

I also managed to play all 3 on M+K, but sometimes you have to rotate the camera, and the game uses keyboard for that instead of the mouse, which could get annoying.

Static · Jan 2, 2020

If I've played all of them on PC, do I still need to feel like I need to play the Wii exclusive version of Forgotten Sands?

Jegriva · Jan 2, 2020

POP1: OgXbox on Xbox One.

POP2: PC

POP3: PC but it still not perfect.

Windu said:
They are backward compatible on xbox one if you have that. Higher resolutions, SoT is 4:3 though, not sure about the others.

But yeah the best versions will be on PC. Assuming they work well on modern hardware.

Edit: wait actually looking on the store, just sands of time is available from that trilogy. No warrior within or two thrones. Probably couldn't get the license renewed for that god smack song. Looks like the later games are on there though.

Yes, Sands of Time, POP2008, Forgotten Sands and even that HD remake of the classic game are all BC on Xbox One.

Warrior Within and The Two Thrones are among the very few exceptions in the Ubisoft catalogue.

Tortahegesztő · Jan 2, 2020

This guide could be helpful for the PC version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593284625

Dussck · Jan 2, 2020

The best way would be to go back in time yourself and play it when the games were still good.

Dimajjio · Jan 2, 2020

I wish this thread had been up a week ago. I bought the PS3 trilogy and played through Sands with the broken sound and it was only 720p. I was expecting 1080p from the store description. Started Warrior and reached the point where the Dahaka was supposed to appear but it didn't. So I couldn't progress any further. Switched it off, unplugged PS3 and reconnected PS4 back up. Not sure if they will ever get played again now.

I do own Warrior on PC so I fired it up and the difference between it and PS3 is night and day. The graphics are miles better and there was no Dahaka bug.

Rikimaru · Jan 2, 2020

Dussck said:
The best way would be to go back in time yourself and play it when the games were still good.

Sands of Time is certainly still good.

Deleted member 11008 · Jan 2, 2020

Tortahegesztő said:
This guide could be helpful for the PC version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593284625

This is a good guide. I will try tomorrow for the controller stuff.

Speevy · Jan 2, 2020

Sands of Time was such an important evolution in game mechanics looking back.

Tokyo_Funk · Jan 2, 2020

Play any version on anything but PS3 Trilogy.

Also throw Warrior Within in the bin or skip it altogether.

LossAversion · Jan 2, 2020

Dussck said:
The best way would be to go back in time yourself and play it when the games were still good.

The worst take.

The Sands of Time is a masterpiece. And while the stories in Warrior Within & The Two Thrones aren't nearly as good, the platforming and puzzles are still excellent. And the combat is very fun in Warrior Within. The Dark Prince stuff in The Two Thrones isn't that great but the way that stealth kills were implemented in order to integrate the combat with the platforming is excellent design.

Teggy · Jan 2, 2020

I remember how excited I was to replay these games when the remastered versions came out on PS3 and SoT didn't even have the bloom. It just looked totally wrong and I didn't even bother playing the game.

Patitoloco · Jan 2, 2020

Weirdly enough, I replayed all of these this holidays. I played on PC, with the widescreen mod, there's no necessity for more tinkering, they work perfectly out of the box.

The worst problem they have is a weird audio issue for framerates higher than 30fps in Warrior Within (it desyncs the cutscenes and stops the music abruptly) and that the control prompts are generic (Button 11, Button 5, etc).

But like I said, with the widescreen mod I played them in 4K with no problem, they're still pretty good games.

Jegriva · Jan 2, 2020

Dussck said:
The best way would be to go back in time yourself and play it when the games were still good.

You would not have Uncharted, AssCreed or the modern Tomb Raider without Sands of Time. And it's still an extremely polished and beatiful game.

Tortahegesztő · Jan 2, 2020

asagami_ said:
This is a good guide. I will try tomorrow for the controller stuff.

I'm using a dualshock 4 with ds4windows and instead of downloading weird programs I just made a custom profile for PoP with higher analogue stick sensitivity to counter the diagonal running bug.

swnny · Jan 2, 2020

Hmm, didn't they patch the PS3 collection? I played through all of them in the summer of 2018 and dont recall any issues.

Deleted member 11008 · Jan 2, 2020

Tortahegesztő said:
I'm using a dualshock 4 with ds4windows and instead of downloading weird programs I just made a custom profile for PoP with higher analogue stick sensitivity to counter the diagonal running bug.

Can ask you what you did? I'm having problem with Sands of Time recognize ds4windows input. I tried even change buttons as keyboard input and nothing. Oddly enough, it recognize the central pad as mouse.

Deleted member 56065 · Jan 2, 2020

Do not play the HD remasters, i repeat DO. NOT. PLAY. THE REMASTERS. They are full of audio and visual bugs that destroy any immersion and story telling effort the game tries to do.

Tortahegesztő · Jan 2, 2020

asagami_ said:
Can ask you what you did? I'm having problem with Sands of Time recognize ds4windows input. I tried even change buttons as keyboard input and nothing. Oddly enough, it recognize the central pad as mouse.

I haven't changed much in DS4Windows. Don't hide the DS4 controller, since the game is using dinput.

In the profile settings you can see how far your analogue stick reaches and increase sensitivity until it can reach the corners of the rectangle. Strangely the game won't recognise the gamepad for me if I tick "dinput only". I have the GOG version of Sands of Time btw.

JaseC64 · Jan 2, 2020

Ok so only Sand of Time is BC with xbox one. The other 2 are not. Correct?

I never played POP2008 and the other one after.

Dimajjio · Jan 2, 2020

JaseC64 said:
Ok so only Sand of Time is BC with xbox one. The other 2 are not. Correct?

Correct but there's still some glimmer of hope that the other two might get BC when the team begins again after the launch of Xbox Series X.

As for the controller thing, does Xbox360CE work nicely? I've been playing ACI and II with it and they are flawless even though they are only DirectInput titles.

R.T Straker · Jan 2, 2020

PC versions with the fixes from PC Gaming wiki.

SoT and WW are locked to 1280x1024 and need a patch to go higher, and also don't proper xinput support.

T2T doesn't suffer from that, but it has a limited of resolutions per AR and controller support.

There you go,

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game

www.pcgamingwiki.com

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Prince_of_Persia:_Warrior_Within

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Prince_of_Persia:_The_Two_Thrones

MP! · Jan 2, 2020

Deleted member 11008 · Jan 2, 2020

I can use my PS4 controller now. Yey. The only thing I don't like I can't see the steam fps counter.

super moustique · Jan 2, 2020

asagami_ said:
should I get the games on PS3

That collection is supposedly not good.

I own those on OG Xbox. Maybe get the PS2 versions and emulate them on PC ?

Windu said:
They are backward compatible on xbox one if you have that. Higher resolutions, SoT is 4:3 though, not sure about the others.

All BC OG Xbox games are X enhanced and you can also play them at higher resolutions (not as high as on 1X obviously :P ) on X1/X1S. The sequels (if or when they become BC) might have a 16:9 mode if it was a thing back then.

Static said:
If I've played all of them on PC, do I still need to feel like I need to play the Wii exclusive version of Forgotten Sands?

It's a different game than the HD Forgotten Sands so yeah ! :P

Tokyo_Funk said:
Also throw Warrior Within in the bin or skip it altogether.

Whatever you do, OP, don't listen to Tokyo Funk ! :D

JaseC64 · Jan 2, 2020

Dimajjio said:
Correct but there's still some glimmer of hope that the other two might get BC when the team begins again after the launch of Xbox Series X.

As for the controller thing, does Xbox360CE work nicely? I've been playing ACI and II with it and they are flawless even though they are only DirectInput titles.

Thanks for the info bud.

Deleted member 71 · Jan 4, 2020

Static said:
If I've played all of them on PC, do I still need to feel like I need to play the Wii exclusive version of Forgotten Sands?

It's fantastic so definitely play it!

One of the best games I played last year.

Deleted member 42484 · Jan 4, 2020

I wandered into this thread because I, too, would love to replay this classic. All I gather is that it's yet another reason I need an Xbox one.

GamerJM · Jan 4, 2020

Is playing them on the original Xbox a good way to go? Sands of Time is on my list of games to pick up for the console once I start collecting for it.

JimNastics · Jan 4, 2020

Sands of Time is an all time classic, it's a generation transcending game for me. I don't know about other fixes or hacks, but I followed this video to get it working nicely a couple of years ago:

Nuclear Muffin · Jan 4, 2020

Playing the Xbox versions on Xbone/XboneX/Series X is probably the best way to go.

The PC versions come from a time where controller support and aspect ratios and such were janky to say the least. They're functional, but a PITA to set up and play (especially if you're planning on playing them on a TV). Mods can help to a certain extent, but it's never gonna be seamless.

Otherwise, the GCN versions are ok, but not ideal, alternatives. Avoid any other version (especially the god awful "HD Remaster" released on PS3).

Olinad · Jan 4, 2020

MP! said:

I'm disappointed it took this many posts lol

ForthU · Jan 4, 2020

I've got the ps3 version ages ago but still haven't started yet, what a bummer to hear it's riddrn with problems...

Valcrist · Jan 4, 2020

Olinad said:
I'm disappointed it took this many posts lol

Yeah, I clicked the thread thinking it would be 1-2 posts.

Best way to play the Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy?

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